'Pediatric Hearing Aid Verification'
The characteristics and the quality of the auditory signal provided by the hearing aids can significantly impact the child?s access to speech. Unlike adults, infants cannot provide feedback about what they are hearing. In order to achieve the goals of speech audibility and comfort, real ear measurement equipment and procedures are used to precisely estimate real ear hearing aid performance based on targets generated through evidence-based formulas, such as the Desired Sensation Level (DSL). Use of certain hearing aid features needs to be carefully considered to ensure the child?s performance will not be negatively impacted. For example, electroacoustic analysis can be done to verify if gain is being reduced when the noise reduction feature is activated.
The pediatric hearing aid verification session will cover (1) considerations for using electrophysiological test results for hearing aid fitting; (2) components of basic verification, (3) considerations for use of special features, including digital noise reduction, directional microphones, and frequency compression, and hands-on practice with verification procedures; and (4) discussion of case studies in pediatric amplification. Participants are also invited to bring case studies. This is an intermediate to advanced level workshop and will assume basic hearing aid knowledge.
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Presented by Ryan McCreery, Karen Munoz, Diane Sabo & Erika Blanchard
Ryan McCreery is a Research Associate at Boys Town National Research Hospital (BTNRH) in Omaha, Nebraska, where his research examines methods of optimizing audibility for children with normal hearing and hearing loss. Ryan is also a collaborator in multiple research laboratories at BTNRH.
Karen Muñoz, Ed.D., CCC-A is an assistant professor of audiology at Utah State University in the Department of Communicative Disorders. Her focus is pediatric audiology and she has been actively involved in efforts to support the early identification and management of hearing loss in children. In addition to her faculty appointment, Karen also serves as a deputy director of the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management at Utah State University.
Diane L. Sabo, Ph.D. is the Director of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Associate Professor, Department of Communication Science and Disorders, University of Pittsburgh. She has over 25 years of clinical work with infants and children, particularly in the area of the electrophysiologic evaluation of the auditory system. Her research interest is in the physiologic evaluation of infants and children using evoked potentials and otoacoustic emissions with special emphasis on the screening of newborns for hearing loss.
Erika Blanchard received her Bachelor of Science in Speech Pathology and Audiology with an emphasis in
developmental disabilities and teaching English as a Second Language from University of Nevada, Reno. She
earned her Masters degree of Science in Audiology from Idaho State University. She has worked in private
practice and in medical otolaryngology settings prior to joining the Elks Hearing & Balance Center in
2004. She specializes in pediatric and adult diagnostics, hearing aids, aural rehabilitation, central
auditory processing disorders and tinnitus assessment and management. She served on the Idaho Hands and
Voices Advisory Board, and the Publications Committee for the American Academy of Audiology. She
contracts with Utah State University as a Network Audiologist for the National Center of Hearing
Assessment and Management. She acts as a mentor to pediatric audiologists throughout the country.
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